When David Smedley Missildine was born on 9 January 1907, in Enterprise, Coffee, Alabama, United States, his father, Thomas Jefferson Missildine, was 37 and his mother, Alice David Smedley, was 35. He married Margaret Adel Vinning in 1928, in Florida, United States. He lived in Ozark, Dale, Alabama, United States in 1920. He registered for military service in 1940. He died on 21 March 1944, in Jefferson, Kentucky, United States, at the age of 37, and was buried in Brunswick, Glynn, Georgia, United States.